


Light Up Your Face With Gladness

by connivingAce



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast-centric, Coping, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, F/M, M/M, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29794842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connivingAce/pseuds/connivingAce
Summary: Memories crop up for Caleb, even when things are looking like they'll be okay.
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast, Yeza Brenatto/Caleb Widogast, Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Light Up Your Face With Gladness

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Capitola for looking over this for me!  
> Title is from Madeleine Peyroux's Smile

She was chopping vegetables today. Lots of vegetables, actually. She'd said that their neighbors had grown way more than they knew what to do with and had brought a bunch over. She'd said that it's been a long time since she'd made preserves and wanted to see if she still remembered how to do it. She'd said that she wasn't used to having neighbors that actually liked her. That had made both Caleb and Yeza frown:Caleb, confused as to how anyone could dislike Veth, Yeza remembering their life before and how they'd been treated in Felderwin.

Veth had set them both to doing simple prep work. Yeza was teaching Luc how to shuck corn and Caleb was braiding onions. He had done this before, many times when he was a boy, except then the hands guiding his had been bigger and paler and weren't crumbled away into ash because the woman who they belong to committed the crime of trusting that her most beloved wouldn't throw her away on the whims of a madman— 

Caleb stopped. Put down the onions. Shrugged and shook his head when Veth looked up in concern. She frowned but went back to chopping. More often than not lately, Caleb was usually able to pull himself back before his thoughts spiralled into bad places on his own, but he knew she still worried. 

As he passed the other two members of his little family, still sorting corn, he ruffled the Luc''s hair and clapped a reassuring hand on Yeza's shoulder. Much like Veth had been in the beginning, Yeza was very concerned with Caleb's wellbeing. Which is not to say Veth's care for him had wanted any. Perhaps halflings had such a strong sense of empathy, or his lovers were particularly attuned to him, or maybe he was so much of a wreck that they thought he'd fall apart without them. He was fairly certain he would fall apart without them, but he didn’t think it fair to them to act like they had as low an opinion of his mental fortitude as he did.

Usually, when Caleb became overwhelmed he would go into the bedroom and snap Frumpkin into existence and focuses on returning his breath to a normal, even pace. Instead, after he snapped Frumpkin into existence, he continued down the hall, past the bedroom and out onto the balcony. It was not the biggest balcony in the world or in Nicodranas or even in their neighborhood, especially given that the complex they live in was built for halflings, but Caleb liked to spend time out here anyway. They had something like a garden growing, mostly just large barrels and mismatched pots growing things that wouldn’t survive the harsh sun and salt air of the coast without a blessing from the Wildmother.

Caduceus was the one who had blessed the garden to begin with, but without the need to hide his worship, Yeza has kept the sanctity of the little shrine intact. There were little lights strung up, jars of Daylight twinkling bright enough that Caleb could always tell which apartment was theirs, even from down the street. He wasn’t sure if it was the spiritual atmosphere or the soothing scent of the flowers, but being out here settled his nerves, and in the soft white light, the terrible, awful, heinous things he’s done seem a little more forgivable.


End file.
